Attitude formation and change

• Processing using only information that is salient to form attitudes
• Simple evaluative inferences are made

Processing involving the critical evaluation of the strength of arguments for and against the object to form attitudes

Pavlov (1897)

• Staats & Staats (1958)
• Neutral nationality names such as Swedish or Dutch paired with either positive or negative words 
• Negative attitudes were conditioned

Skinner (1938)

Whether an action is rewarded or punished leads us to change our attitudes about it

• Social and observational learning
• Bandura (1977)
• Cues from models in people's lives such as warmth, praise

• Bandura (1961)
• Bobo doll experiment (models are violent or non violent)

The phenomenon in which the familiar is preferred over the novel

• Zajonc (1968)
• P's pronounced two nonsense words, one 10 times and one twice 
• Then asked to rate how positive the words were
• The one repeated 10 times was rated as more positive

• The hypothesis in which facial movement can influence opinion and emotional experience 
• Influenced by Darwinian beliefs that physiological changes have an effect on emotion

• Strack et al (1988)
• P's held pens in their mouth to simulate muscle contraction during smiling 
• Watched cartoons 
• Those with pens in their mouths found the cartoons funnier

• Attending to the message 
• Comprehending the message 
• Elaboration (reacting either cognitive or affectively to the content)
• Accepting

Petty & Cacciopo (1984)

• More positive elaborations = higher likelihood of a positive attitude 
• Strong attitudes elicit more positive elaborations than weak ones 
• Systematic processing of weak arguments leads to more negative elaborations

Petty & Cacioppo (1984)

• Accuracy concerns and consequences of being wrong 
• Social norms 
• Self-relevence of the issue 
• Need for cognition 
• Mood

• Mental resources 
• Processing constraints such as time 
• Ability to concentrate
• Mood